No pain, just cramp – Farrell allays injury fears

Owen Farrell was forced off in Saracens’ Premiership final victory over Exeter Chiefs but allayed injury concerns ahead of England’s tour to South Africa.

The fly-half kicked two conversions in a 27-10 victory for Sarries at Twickenham before appearing to be in pain as he left the pitch with 15 minutes remaining.

It will have raised concerns for England coach Eddie Jones, who named Farrell his captain for three Tests against the Springboks in June.

But Farrell said no serious damage had been done and he fully expects to link up with the England squad next week.

“No, no pain, just cramp,” he told BT Sport when asked about the injury.

On the upcoming tour of South Africa, Farrell added: “It’s brilliant. We’ll celebrate this first and celebrate tonight. We might enjoy tomorrow, too. Then we’ll be into it next week and that’ll be a challenge.”

Saracens did not enjoy the same dominance this season as in previous Premiership campaigns, but Farrell feels the adversity faced has made the team stronger.

“[The final] was hard-fought, I’m sure everybody could see that. It was a tough, pretty straightforward game really,” he said.

“Obviously it was fought to the end, it was a battle of attrition really. Just chuffed for the organisation, to do it the way we’ve done it this year. We’ve had some tough times but come out better for it.”

England face the Springboks in Johannesburg on June 9, before matches in Bloemfontein and Cape Town in the following fortnight.

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Mark Keohane is the founder of Keo.co.za.

Keohane, a former Springbok Communications Manager, has previously won the SAB Sports Journalist of the Year award, as well as the SAB Sports Columnist of the Year award, SAB Sports News and Match Report Writer of the Year award and SAB Sports Feature Writer of the Year award.

Keo.co.za was named the Sports Blog of the Year at the 2011 SAB Sports Awards and also won the Overall New Media award.

Keo.co.za was also named Sports Blog of the Year for five successive years in the annual SA Blogging Awards.